Lomax, Sloan reaping the benefits of Flanagan's tough love

The Dragons turned in arguably their most impressive performance in several seasons on the Gold Coast on Saturday night, running in five tries in a 28-4 drubbing of the Titans.

Lomax was one of the try-scorers and, playing on the right wing, logged a whopping 266 running metres from 24 carries with two line breaks.

It was his first start on the wing since round two of 2020, making way from his preferred right centre position for Jack Bird.

It was a hot discussion topic in the lead-up to round one, with whispers the Eels are interested in Lomax's services if he can secure a release from remaining two years of his rich Dragons deal.

Flanagan knocked any permission to negotiate on the head, saying the proof was in the round-one pudding as to whether Lomax was fully invested in the Dragons.

"If he wasn't happy, he wouldn't have played like that," Flanagan said following the win.

"Sometimes players play out of position. Maybe [wing] is his position, I'm not quite sure.

"His 'favourite' position is right centre, but to say he's not happy ... he went out there today in a really good frame of mind and did a really good job."

There were also more than positive signs when it came to new coach Flanagan's other major conundrum in enigmatic fullback Tyrell Sloan.

The 21-year-old had a forgettable Charity Shield outing, but was solid against the Tigers a week later before kicking off the season proper with a maiden career hat-trick on Saturday night.

Flanagan hasn't been shy in publicly discussing the areas Sloan needs to improve in, but the Dapto product said post-game he's felt nothing but firm backing from the coach internally.

Flanagan said it will continue.

"He's a class player when he gets into space, and he can score tries without a doubt," Flanagan said.

"He's still just got to work on some things. There were a couple of errors [from] him and a couple of other players there.

"He wasn't on his own, but he's one of those players that people come to see and play football.

"For me probably more so as a defensive coach, he needs to tidy up a few errors up, but I'll give him a tick today."

While he's been the first to point out Sloan's deficiencies, Flanagan said at least one aspect of the criticism directed at his fullback has been off the mark.

"Some of the errors last year that he made defensively, people maybe use the word soft, he's not soft defensively," Flanagan said.

"He'll put his body in and have a crack at them. It's probably more the technique type of thing that he needs to concentrate on, but he'll definitely have a go defensively.

"Players like Tyrell have just got to realise that you can't score all the time. You've got to just value your possession and make your tackles.

"It's a fine line to take that little bit of class of flare away from him and get him on the conservative side, so that's what we've got to try and do with him."

Sloan's not alone in feeling that focus, with Flanagan and assistant coach Dean Young putting the bulk of their stock in quick improvements defensively.

Conceding just one try via a kick despite a glut of first-half possession to the Titans was a major step in that direction.

"We were definitely gritty in the first half, saved a few tries," Flanagan said.

"We were our own worst enemy I thought. We just made too many errors, put ourselves under too much pressure, but the grit kept us in the game.

"The biggest challenge with this group is to make sure that they start believing what sort of side they are. I thought that was a really big step in believing in what type of team we've got.

"To keep turning the Titans away, at one stage they had 45 play the balls in our 30. We had 12 in theirs, and we just kept turning them away.

"They didn't run over our try-line, they had to kick in behind us to score a try. That means a lot to me, the way we defend.

"Any side that wins the competition, or plays semi-finals, they're in the top three and four defensively. That's where I want to see us."

It's something that will need to continue against the Dolphins in Redcliffe this coming weekend.

"I think we've won one game out of our last 18 in Queensland, [that's] the old Dragons," Flanagan said.

"The new Dragons are one from one and we've got to come up here next week for a really tough game against the Dolphins so we're looking forward to the next challenge.

"I was sitting back quite happy that people were tipping us to come last because it won't happen."